You’ve heard that cyber threats are on the rise, you know you need to be prepared – but where do you start? Building a cyber readiness plan, educating your team, and securing passwords are some of the things you can do now to prepare. Followed closely by contacting EOS IT for a cyber security assessment!
Cyber threats aren’t going away any time soon, but these 12 strategies can help protect your business in the event that it becomes a target.
- Have a Cyber Readiness Plan – With headlines full of mentions of cyber attacks and security breach victims, it’s time to take risks seriously. The success and survival of your business will be determined by your ability to overcome security threats or breaches. You need a cyber readiness plan that includes prevention, continuity and recovery strategies.
- Establish Strict Policies and Procedures – Policies and procedures regulate business operations and are essential for defining the standards and expectations of employee behaviour and actions in the workplace. While establishing strict, security-focused protocols is necessary, a system of validation and enforcement is equally important. After all, rules without consequences are merely suggestions.
- Keep Updates Up to Date – While updates often introduce new or enhanced features into your apps, programs and systems, they also install security and performance fixes known as patches. Undiscovered defects or flaws can leave your systems exposed. Hackers will exploit any vulnerability or security gap they find. Keeping your systems updated is vital for keeping your business cyber ready.
- Force Authentication – One-level security is no longer enough. Even the most robust passwords are vulnerable to theft or exposure. Requiring more than one method to authenticate user identity or access permissions can reduce or eliminate the risk of stolen or unauthorised credentials being utilised.
- Back Up Everything! – Data is the lifeblood of every business. Unfortunately, the risks and threats to the protection, privacy and usability of that data are endless. Follow the 3-2-1 method for backups: a minimum of three unique copies of your data, two available locally and one off-site or in the cloud. Ensure to test your backups often for functionality and integrity.
- Don’t Neglect Compliance – Maintaining regulatory compliance is mandatory for many organisations. While navigating and satisfying the obligations can be complicated and stressful, achieving compliance is a critical component of having a cyber-ready business. Security and privacy are integral elements of compliance.
- Knowledge is Power – Continuous network intelligence is a critical component of cyber readiness. It’s extremely important to have on-demand insights of suspicious changes, potentially harmful misconfigurations or any other malicious activities occurring on your network. Promptly detect and remove threats before they cause damage.
- Security Awareness Training – Users are the weakest link in security, given a lack of education and experience. Instituting a security awareness training program for every member of your staff significantly reduces the probability of user-related errors and exposure.
- Combat the Password Crisis – Most hacking-related breaches are linked to weak, reused or stolen passwords as user credentials remain a top vulnerability for businesses. Balance convenience and security by monitoring the dark web for exposed credentials, implementing multifactor authentication and streamlining control of password management.
- Don’t Skip the Insurance – Increasing risks of data breaches and ransomware, regardless of size or industry, have prompted many businesses to adopt cyber-risk insurance to protect themselves from catastrophic loss. Investing in a cyber insurance policy could save your business should you be the next victim.
- Reduce Supply Chain Vulnerabilities – Many businesses have experienced cyber-related issues in their supply chain. As a part of your cyber readiness plan, you must deploy protocols to evaluate and monitor the security of your supplier networks and third-party vendors.
- Deploy a Multi-Layer Security Strategy – Security is asymmetrical. Where businesses must plan, prepare and defend against every threat scenario, cyber criminals only need to find a single weakness or hole in your defences to carry out their malicious plans. Protect your data and your business by deploying multiple security strategies together as one.
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